Page 69 in Strykers is a fairly accurate representation of the struggles the characters have to go through and overcome in the rest of the book. The book has an ensemble cast of characters and page 69 lands on a chapter dedicated to Ciari Treiva. It shows part of a conversation between the ruling elite and an enslaved psion who still finds a way to protest the treatment of her people, albeit very little comes of her protestations. Ciari has to play a certain role in order to ensure the survival of her people and if that means sacrificing a few in order to save everyone else, she will do it. She’s not completely heartless about it, but she knows her role, and it’s to make sure the elite believes she’s toeing their line, even when it becomes apparent later on in the story that she’s not.

“That’s a Class II telepath you want me to terminate, sir. I realize you don’t much care about the rest of them, but—”

“That’s a dysfunctional Class II telepath I’m telling you to terminate,” Erik interrupted sharply. “There’s a difference between a psion that is worth something to me and one that has proven useful in all the years we’ve let him live.”

“Permission to speak freely, sir.”

“If you’re going to try arguing for their lives, then no. Terminate them.”

The screen went blank, Erik having cut the connection on his end. Ciari rubbed a hand over her face, mouth twisting slightly before the expression smoothed away. She hated this part of her job.

Getting to her feet, Ciari left her office for the lift beyond her doors, taking it down to the busy command level. It was a mazy of hallways, offices, and command rooms, full of humans and Strykers alike monitoring Styrkers out in the field on contract and those within their headquarters. All Strykers showed up on the government’s security grid through bioscans from the signal that their implanted neurotrackers transmitted, a precaution that was law. If they dropped off the grid, they were either dead or attempting an escape, the latter of which resulted in the former.

There was no way out of the Strykers Syndicate except by death. Everyone knew that.